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' (No Model.) s sheetsfsheet 1.

W. E. ELAlVI. R. S. THOMAS, D. H. CRAWFORD 8v s. W. HARDWIGK. APPARATUS TOR HAN LINGl AND CLEANING SEED COTTON.

M' a .SQQWW @lie/AMW N. PETERS. Plwm-nwgnphcr. washinmm. D. c.

3 Sheets-Smet 2,

Paented Nov. 12, 1889.

(No Model.)

W. E. ELAM, R. S. THOMAS, D'. H. CRAWFORD 8vs.' W. HARDWIGK. APPARATUS` EOE. HANDLING AND CLEANING SEED COTTON. 19.414,762.

3 Sheets-Sheet 173.

(No Model.)

W. E. ELAM, R. S. THOMAS, D H. CRAWFORD 8v S. W. HARDWICK. APPARATUS PGR HANDLING AND CLEANING SEED COTTON. 110.414.762. Patented Nov. 12, 1889.

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' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IVILLIAM E. ELAM, ROBERT S. THOMAS, DIVIGHT H. CRAVFORD, AND SAU NIE \V.IIARDIVIOI{, OF DALLAS, TEXAS SAID CRAIVFORD ASSIGNOR, BY DI- RECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO. SAID ELAM, THOMAS, AND IIARD- \VICK.

APPARATUS FOR HANDLING AND CLEANING SEED-COTTON.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 414,762, dated November 12, 1889.

Appiimtim fina April 2, 1883. serai No. 805,768. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, WILLIAM E. ELAM, ROBERT S. THOMAS, DWIGHT H. CRAWFORD, and SAUNIE W. HARDWIOK, all residents of 5 Dallas, in the county of Dallas and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and ex- Io act description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart torwhich it pertains to make and use the same.

Our invention involves conveying cotton through pneumatic tubes, freeing it from dust and linally delivering it to gins of any construction, the object of the apparatus being to improve the quality of the ginned cotton; to prevent injury to the gin,while increasing 2o its effective capacity; to avoid d ust in the ginhouse, and to dispense with most of the labor usually required to handle cotton rapidly. Injury is prevented by the removal of foreign bodies before the cotton is presented to 2 5 the gin, and capacity is increased by providing means whereby clogging is avoided, no matter how fast cotton -is fed to the apparatus.

The invention is fully shown in the accompanying drawings, in`whichf- 3o .Figure l is a vertical section of a gin-house wit-h the apparatus in position. Fig. 2 is a broken plan of a trough and adjacent parts hereinafter mentioned. Fig. 3 is a broken plan of a portion of a pneumatic tube and a 3 5 rotary screen cutting olf the internal passage therein. Fig. 4 is a section on the line Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a section on the line y y,Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a section on the line zz, Fig. 1. Fig. 7 is a section similarto Fig. 6, showing slightly- 4o modified construction, showing the cotton discharging directly into a gin. Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. -of another modification in construction.

In the drawings, A represents the wall of a gin-house, (seen in section,) and B a line-shaft driven by a pulley C.

D D D is a preferably horizontal conveyer-tube provided with three branches D3 D4 D5, of which the first leads to a storageroom, the second (a flexible dependent pipe) 5o takes cotton from a wagon without the building, and the third (entirely within the building) carries again into the pipe D the overflow cotton that may accumulate, as hereinafter explained. The tribe, by means of ordinary valves F F', is at will put into communication with one or another of these branches. At the opposite end of the conveyer is an 'exhaust-fan E, driven from the line-shaft by a belt G, and serving when rotated to produce 6o a powerful current of air toward itself on the side of the conveyer and from itself through a pipe (not shown) leading to the external air, or elsewhere, as desired. The tube or conveyer is discontinuous and its middle section is double, or consists of two distinct tubes D D', Fig. 5, that are rigidly lixed in any suitable manner, as upon the four spurs c of a frame d, supported from the building. Between these two tubes rotates a hollow cylin- 7o der 2 of a diameter barely greater than the lengthiof the tubular segments D. Upon each side of the cylinder and just outside the tubes is placed. a ring b,of the same diameter, and upon the cylinder and the two rings'is placed 75 or wound a wire-netting I, and the whole is rotated by a tubular gudgeon 6, iXed to the cylinder, passing out thro ugh one of the tubes, and bearing upon its outer end a driving-pulley 4 to receive a belt 2 from the shaft K. 8o Through the hollow gudgeon passes a Iixed shaft 5,that has within the cylinder an offset 7 toward the tubular segmentD. Its outer ends are fixed to the frame-work supporting the tubes, and the intermediate portions serve 8 5 as bearings for the revolving cylinder. Upon the offset are four loosely-litting divergent arms 8, that rest" two upon each side of the shaft in foun conical apertures in the thick walls of the cylinder and its over- `9o lying netting. The arms are carried with the cylinder in its rotation, and' being mounted eccentrioally with reference thereto they are caused to project upon one side only of the cylinder, where they aid the screen in carrying to one side the cotton brought against it through the tube D by the air-current. `The ends of the tubes D D are enlarged near the screen, and their walls are very nearly in contact with its surface, and for the more perfect exclusion of air the walls are provided with flanges a, of leather or the like, that lie in actual contact with the moving screen. The tube D is vertically as well as laterally en larged at the end and embraces nearly onehalf the screen-cyliinler. This vertical enlargement affords below the screen a passage Il, Fig. 4, leading from the tube D. The passage is closed by a hinged cut-off l2, having at its upper edge a leather flange 2l, normally in contact with the screen, and at its opposite edge a weight 13, that causes it to offer a yielding resistance` to the opening of the passage. The passage is still further sep,- arated from the main part of the tube D by an elastic leather apron ll, which the arms 8 press aside as they descend, and which by its elasticity tends at all times to close what may be considered as a lateral aperture in and exit from the conveying-tube. As the enlarged end of the tube D extends laterally beyond the tubes D', blocks 15 are fixed to the latter within the cylinder, so that the air may not be drawn through the screen at the sides of the tubes and into the tube D. In the construction described we have a practi-` callycontinuous tube or air-passage crossed by a moving screen lying at all times partly within and partly without the air-currents path. Now,if the fan be rotated and if cotton be presented to either of the branches D3D4D5, with which the tube D may be in eommunication, the cotton will be taken up and carried against the screen, where by the action of the moving screen-surface, aided by the arms S, it is forced down through the passage II and past the cutoff l2. lVhile it is in contact with the screen, the powerful air-current removes dust and other foreign matters, and, carrying them on through the tubes D D and the fan E, discharges them through any suitable conduit leading from the ginhouse.

As the cotton falls from the passage Il, it is received by a trough M, supportedL in any suitable manner and open at each end. In the bottom of the trough are openings V, Fig. 2, through which the cotton may pass directly into ordinary gins, into the usual ginfeeders, or into other avenues leading to the gins. ln the bottom or lower part of the trough runs an endless distributer-belt consisting of parallel bands S, cross-bars T,fxed thereto, and exible aprons U, each having its forward margin secured to one of the cross-bars and its remaining margins free. Then supported in a horizontal position, the aprons nearly close the rectangular spaces between the bands and the cross-bars, but fall through these spaces when unsupported. The belt is driven by drums N N', operated. from the shaft B by any desired connection, as by the crossed belt G and bevel-gears J J.

Upon this belt the cotton carried forward, the aprons being supported by the bottom of the trough untilthe first openin g V is reached, when the rear margins fall through the belt and opening V, and the cotton passes to the first gin P; but as the passage to or into the gin is filled with cotton the latter itself supports the passing aprons, and their load goes on to the nextgin, and so on till all are filled. lf the cotton be fed to the apparatus so fast that there is still a surplus, this is carried over the drum N' and dropped upon the floor at the mouth of the pipe D5, from whence it is again taken into the tube D whenever the operator so desiring turns the valves F F so as to open this branch and close the branches D3 D4. As the cotton drops through either of the openings V, it falls into a corresponding compartment Q, preferably fixed to the trough, and having mounted in its lower part a picker-roller R, for regulating the rate of its passage to the gin. The picker-roller is a simple cylinder having its surface studded with short spikes. Its shaft extends bc yond the walls of the compartment and bears upon its outer end a gear Q', actuated from a shaft upon the gin or gin-feeder by a train of gearing or its equivalent. As shown, the trough rests upon the top of an ordinary ginfeeder Q, wit-hin which the piekerroller compartment drops, Jthe wall of the feeder being slotted for the passage of its shaft. In this ease the lower fold of the belt passes between the gin and gin -feeder below the feeder-belt, there being usually a space amply sufficient for the purpose. lVe do not, however, wish to limit ourselves to any particular position of the trough with reference to the gin, nor to a combination with the ginfeeder, for, unless the gin is already provided with a feeder, we place the trough over the gin itself and dispense with the feeder entirely, the picker-roller serving all practical ends of the feeder when used with the apparatus described, as indicated in Fig. 7.

Fig. 8 shows a method of avoiding the necessity for using the leather flanges upon both sides of the rot-ating cylinder to exclude the air. The end is accomplished by deflecting both the tubes D so that they pass around and through the wall of the cylinder and connect directly and permanently with the tube D. The operation of the device remains unchanged, the only other variation of construction being in winding the inner ends of the arms 8 about eccentrics V, fixed upon the central hollow shafts 9S), (said shafts 99 forming fixed parts of the tubesV D, as showin) instead of giving the inner shaft an offset, as in the former case. In this construction the inner shaft carries with it in its revolution the screen-cylinder, and also the rods 8,which lie in its central wall, and as the ends of the rods are bent around fixed eccentrics lying :in recesses in that wall it is evident that rotation of the cylinder causes the rods to protrude upon one side and not upon the other ICO IIO

of the cylinder, as in the construction first described.

What We claim is- 1. The combination, with a pneumatic conveyer-tube and means for creating an exhaust-current therein, of a screen lying partly within and partly Without the path of the current and traveling transversely through it, whereby cotton advancing in the tube is arrested, held momentarily against the screen, and cleaned by the current, and carried by the advance of the screen laterally out of the current to be afterward discharged from the tube.

2. The combination, with the tubes D D D, of the hollow cylinder 2 and means for rotating the same, the fixed shaft 5, having the offset within the cylinder, the arms 8, loosely mounted upon said offset and lying in divergent passages through the walls of said cylinder, and the screen or netting secured to said cylinders surface and extending entirely across the tubular passages, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The distributer consisting of a trough having a series of openings in its lower side and an endless belt moving along the bottom of said trough and having vertically-swinging hinged sections adapted to drop through the openings in the bottom of the trough as they are reached in succession.

4. The combination, with the gins, the distributer-trough open at each end, and the endless belt traveling within said trough, of the pneumatic conveyer-tube opening beneath one end of said trough, whereby cotton may be rapidly offered to the gins, and the surplus, if any, be thrown aside and afterward returned to the gins at the will of the operator.

5. The combination, with the distributingtrough having an opening for the passage of cotton through the bottom thereof and an endless conveyer-belt passing through said trough, of a picker-roller mounted immediately below said opening and graduating the discharge therethrough, substantially as set forth. y

G. The combination, with a pneumatic cot- ,yielding cut-off tending at all times to close .said aperture, whereby cotton carried against Ythe screen .by the current is freed from dust and foreign substances and forced past the cut-off out of the tube, substantially as set forth.

8. The combination, with the pneumatic tube, of a rotary cylindrical screen extending entirely across the interior of the tube, and a series of arms mounted within the cylinder upon an axis eccentric to the cylinders axis of rotation, and having their free ends lying in apertures through the cylinder-walls, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

9. The combination of a cylindrical rotating screen with a series of arms mounted within the screen upon an axis eccentric to the cylindersaxis of rotation, and with their free ends lying in passages through-the walls of the cylinder, whereby in the rotation of the cylinder the arms are caused to project upon one side of the cylinder, but not upon the other. l

In testimony whereof We have signed this specification in the presence of tWo subscribing witnesses.

W. E. ELAM.

R. S. THOMAS.

D. H. CRAWFORD. SAUNIE XV. HARDVICK.

Witnesses:

S. H. MCBRIDE, J. R. PIERCE. 

